In the brutal world of nature, sometimes an animal’s got to take risks.
Although black bears tend to be on top of whatever food chain they’re living in (unless they run into a grizzly), it doesn’t mean food is always readily available.
As human development expands through previously untouched forest land, all types of creatures are uprooted and forced to move. While some do a pretty good job cohabitating with people, others don’t and the overall population of animals will decrease quite dramatically when the humans come to town.
This can lead some animals to begin doing things they previously wouldn’t have dreamed of to try and get a meal.
Case in point, this black bear in the Lake Tahoe area.
While fishing in Emerald Bay, a wildlife photographer and tour guide noticed some commotion on the shore line and saw a young black bear scampering through the brush. As one does anytime a bear is nearby, he began watching with fascination as the bear spotted something way up in the skyline and started making a mad dash upwards.
Somehow, the bear saw (perhaps smelled) an osprey nest all the way up on the crown of an enormous dead tree and decided he was going to make a go at it.
Starting way down at the bottom, it begins shooting its way up, making very impressive time for the first half of the journey before things went south.
Here’s what the video’s caption has to say
“Got to see something few people get to see in real time and that’s a bear going for a leisurely 80+ft climb up a tree as we were fishing in Emerald Bay.
(My friend) noticed a commotion going on on shore as we looked over we saw a young bear running around, as we kept watching he decided to go for a tree climb. Not going to lie we were both scared as he got higher and higher we’d be witnessing this dude go for a fall as he got higher.
The only reason we could come up with as to why he was doing this was to get the osprey eggs at the top. He was about 20-30ft from getting there when branches started to break at that point he made the wise decision to turn around.”
All that work for nothing.
It would have been absolutely incredible to see how it would have attacked the problem of actually getting its paws or snout into the nest once it reached the top, but it was just far to dangerous for it to continue.
Some large risks come with a large reward; unfortunately others leave you with nothing.
